Valuing community leadership: a strategic approach to engagement
The Community Leadership Panel on Climate Change and Just Transition, offers a scalable, place-based model that empowers communities to actively shape strategic initiatives from the early stages of planning. Today we are launching an insights report to share learnings from the panel and support replication in other places.
The panel is a new model of community influence and leadership, developed by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership with support from Praxis Research as part of the National Lottery funded Community Climate Action Project. It is an important part of the wider Community Climate and Nature Action Model, a place-based approach for a just transition. The model harnesses existing social and community infrastructure to support both community and climate resilience. It recognises community expertise and lived experience and positions communities as key agents of change on climate action and just transition.
Composed of representative community leaders (who are compensated for their time), the panel has convened quarterly over the last 3 years to review project, policy and strategy proposals on city or regional level, serving as a ‘critical friend’ in the decision-making process. By moving beyond passive, late-stage consultations offering limited opportunity for influence, the panel plays a decisive role, fostering a trusted and transparent relationship between civil society and the city authorities. This, in turn, leads to more just and inclusive policies that avoid creating unintended barriers and/or compounding existing inequities in the local context.
“Increasing democracy and participation in a world where elite power is the norm will always be challenging. Panellists have frequently questioned the ability of the panel to ‘have teeth’ or whether they are sufficiently ‘representative’ of the wider community. These are good questions we will keep coming back to, but we don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. The panel is clearly having a material impact on many of the projects which have consulted it.”
Emilia Melville, Praxis Research
The next phase of the Community Climate and Nature Action Project (2025-28) will include the development of a Community Leadership Panel on Just Transition for the wider West of England region. This will be informed by the development insights from the Bristol panel from 2022-25 and supported by the expertise of Praxis.
Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership are exploring collaborations to support the continuation the Bristol panel in addition to the new West of England panel. If you are interested in commissioning or supporting the Bristol panel in the future, please get in touch.
“Diverse community insights are critical to ensuring climate and nature strategies are well informed and fit for purpose. Their absence can result in unintended negative consequences which compound existing inequalities and risk citizen backlash. Bristol is committed to a just transition to net zero and the community leadership panel helps ensure social justice is a priority in how the city takes climate and nature action.”
Amy Harrison, Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership
The Community Leadership Panel insights report is part of a series of learnings we are sharing from the National Lottery funded Community Climate Action Project over the coming months. Make sure you’re signed up to hear from us, and in the meantime check out our resource library.
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